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David Cameron's Penny Hunt

Government revenue grabs increasingly threaten civil liberties.

Updated Aug. 27, 2014 7:01 p.m. ET

David Cameron is proposing draconian new revenue measures to help bridge a government deficit that was £179 billion ($297 billion) last year. It's an idea the Prime Minister might want to reconsider before his tax collectors come looking for loose change under British sofa cushions.

In a consultation paper released last week, Mr. Cameron's tax collectors propose creating a new criminal offense of failing to declare taxable income and gains offshore. This would be a strict-liability crime, meaning that prosecutors wouldn't...